Whenever we start talking about salvation by faith alone or faith in obedience it doesn’t take long for someone to bring up the thief on the cross as a counter to the idea that we must cooperate with the grace God gives us in order to be saved especially when
Things like baptism are mentioned as being necessary for salvation the argument is that since the thief on the cross didn’t perform any good works and he certainly wasn’t baptized how then could he be saved first of all let’s talk about what Protestants and Catholics typically agree with when it
Comes to this example now we both believe that the thief on the cross had faith that Jesus was Lord his statement Lord when you come into your kingdom Remember Me shows us that he believed Jesus was Lord and King we also both believe that he was saved I mean Jesus
Says that today you will be with me in paradise and I think this is a terrible argument for faith alone regardless of whether or not you believe in faith alone to make the case that the thief or as we call him St dmus didn’t do anything besides have faith is clearly a
Lost cause so what did he do well first of all he humbled himself he said to the other Thief who is ridiculing Jesus do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation and we indeed justly for we are receiving the
Due reward of our Deeds but this man has done nothing wrong that’s doing something my friends he acknowledged his own sin that’s not nothing he also confesses Jesus as Lord and asks for Mercy this is the classic stuff of alter calls all across the world he did
Something to make the case that he didn’t do anything that just doesn’t make sense my friends now maybe this is semantics but I think this counts as cooperating with the grace that God revealed to him when you have to deny something so plainly obvious to make your objection to Catholicism it’s just
Not a good look if you want to use this as an argument for faith alone I think there are better ones now if you want to make this about the necessity of baptism I think this is a much more fruitful conversation Catholics Orthodox and some Protestants will say baptism is
Necessary for salvation Martin Luther himself wrote moreover it is solemnly and strictly commanded that we must be baptized or we cannot be saved so then how was the thief on the cross saved without baptism well a couple things first of all baptism was not yet necessary for salvation when the thief
Died baptism is about being united with Christ’s death and Resurrection which hadn’t happened yet it’s the same kind of answer people give when it comes to the Salvation of Old Testament Saints how could they be saved without faith in Christ the answer is God’s grace merited through the cross was applied to them
Even though it had not yet happened because they had faith in the promise of God we see this in Romans 4 when Paul talks about how Abraham never had access to the law about circumcision and how that work was the entrance to the the Covenant so because he lived before it
Was given his faith in God was what made him part of the Covenant see what Paul also says in Colossians 2: 11-12 in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands your whole self ruled by the Flesh and was put off when you were
Circumcised by Christ having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead see Jesus had not yet been raised from the dead so baptism had not yet been
Given as the means of entrance into the kingdom yet remember Jesus would go on to give this instruction to the disciples at the Great Commission in Matthew 28 where he tells them to teach everyone to obey everything he had commanded them and to baptize them in
The name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit now I don’t want to get too sidetracked here but my point is that it’s wrong to use this against the teaching of baptismal regeneration ation because it hadn’t yet been established now if you want to see how
This plays out on the other side just ask a Protestant how does a person become saved they’ll probably quote Romans 10 9-10 which says if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for
It is with your heart that you believe and are Justified and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved notice the interplay between what you believe and what you do believe and conf Fess anyway well if you ask a Protestant how could Moses be saved when
He didn’t do those things you’ll get the same kind of answer I’m giving you about the thief on the cross which by the way is a good answer I agree with it now the next thing we need to understand is what the Catholic Church means when it says
Baptism is necessary for salvation the bottom line is this there are different ways the church talks about baptism of course the normative water baptism in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit is what we think of but but there is another type of
Baptism that the church acknowledges the baptism of blood the catechism of the Catholic church in paragraph 1258 says the church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ this baptism
Of blood like the desire for baptism brings about the fruits of baptism without being a Sacrament so in essence the thief on the cross was baptized in his blood the grace of baptism was applied to him here’s the bottom line God can do whatever God wants to do when
It comes to applying his grace you see people think that Catholicism is just a bunch of rules and formulas that reduce everything to a list of things you must do to be saved so when people say that if you believe in faith and works well
What works as though there is a list for everyone just to work through that’s a straw man which honestly could be applied to Protestants too as we’ve already talked about the catechism says in the paragraph just before the one I mentioned about the baptism by Blood the following the Lord himself affirms that
Baptism is necessary for salvation he also commands his disciples to proclaim the gospel to All Nations and to baptize them baptism is necessary for the Salvation for those to whom the gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this Sacrament the church does not know of any means
Other than baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are quote reborn of water in the spirit unquote God has bound salvation to the sacrament
Of baptism but he himself is not bound by his sacraments in short God can do whatever God wants to do when it comes to how he administers his grace and salvation that’s Catholic teaching we don’t take that and go all right cool I guess we don’t need to do anything we
Seek to obey God in the fullest way we can but we don’t limit God to what we can do so in closing the arguments about salvation by faith alone or faith and works are deep and complex and I’ve made videos about this before and judging from the response I’ve seen not everyone
Agrees with me but of all the objections people raise I’d like to propose that the argument based on the thief on the cross be retired it just doesn’t work and you guys can do better and I’m sure we will all see about it in the comments
And videos made about me later God bless oh one more thing if the finished work of Jesus is truly enough and we can do nothing to cooperate with it or add to it in any way then was the other Thief also saved the one who didn’t repent and
Turned to Jesus and asked for Mercy if Jesus Paid It All does that not count for him too just a Thought
source
